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Sardinian BBQ in December

This past weekend we were invited back to the 12lb Snapper House for a traditional Sardinian BBQ. Being Canadian and one who was brought up on the best BBQ’s the world has to offer, I was excited to try a traditional Sardinian BBQ.

Come on! We are going to the kitchen for dinner. Maureddu has meat, and he wants to have a BBQ.

I was a little thrown off as the 12 lb Snapper house is a bachelor pad with a nice fireplace, a sofa and a big screen on the wall but no BBQ. I figured ok, what the heck and left it to the two Sardinian guys and opened a bottle of Cannonau.

Sardinian BBQ

We are having a BBQ in the family fireplace? I asked in my perfectly broken Italian, which sounded more like this: Stiamo avendo un barbecue nel caminetto?

I knew it was best to let the Sards do what they know best, and poured more wine.

I could hear them rattling away in their local lingua.

Agghju fame. Ajo. Facému così …

I’m hungry. Come on, or let’s go. Let’s do it like this …

E prontu. It’s ready.

BBQ-ed Pancetta

Vino, vino rosso. Get your red-hot vino rosso. I blared out in my perfect Canadian dialect, and was met with stares of confusion and disbelief. Leave it to me to add song and dance to everything I do, doesn’t matter what part of the world I’m in there’s a song always playing, albeit inside my head.

Sardinian pancetta

Fresh pancetta, local fennel, pickled eggplant and bottled Sardinian red wine. Nothing beats the taste of fresh, local ingredients in your diet. This meal was 100% locally grown and produced.

The Dish

Nothing tastes as fine as fresh meat barbecued in the family fireplace. This was one experience I can’t wait to try again.

What cooking or eating experiences have you tried for the first time on the road?

Hāngi (pronounced [ˈhaːŋi]) is a traditional New Zealand Māori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven still used for special occasions.

To “lay a hāngi” or “put down a hāngi” involves digging a pit in the ground, heating stones in the pit with a large fire, placing baskets of food on top of the stones, and covering everything with earth for several hours before uncovering (or lifting) the hāngi.

Really, good point! I have no idea why the flames are purple, I thought maybe it was the exposure on my camera. I don’t remember the flames actually being purple, but proof is in the pudding. All they used was fresh wood (probably olive tree) and a flame, no fuel of any sort.